The Panguil Bay Bridge nearing completion. Photo from the Facebook page of the Province of Lanao del Norte.
CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 21 June) — The final concrete deck of the 3.71-kilometer Panguil Bay Bridge will be lowered next week and will finally connect the provinces of Lanao del Norte and Misamis Occidental, officials said.
Imelda Dimaporo, Lanao del Norte Governor and Region 10 Development Council Chair, said after the lowering of the final slab of concrete, the contractor would work on girders and parapets in time for the bridge’s opening in August this year.
The bridge is being built by Korean contractor Namkwang Engineering & Construction Corporation in joint venture with Kukdong Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. and Gumgwang Construction Co. Ltd. as well as engineering consultant Yooshin Engineering Corporation in joint venture with Pyunghwa Engineering Consultants Ltd. and Kyong-Ho Engineering & Architects Co. Ltd, according to the Department of Public Works and Highways.
“Hopefully the much-awaited opening of the bridge will be in August,” Dimaporo told reporters after the RDC 10 quarterly meeting in Cagayan de Oro Thursday.
Once completed, the Panguil Bay bridge would become the longest water-spanning bridge in Mindanao.
It was during the Aquino III administration that the Philippine government secured funding for the project through a loan agreement with the Export-Import Bank of Korea-Economic Development Cooperation Fund. The agreement was signed on April 28, 2016.
The bridge has a budget of P7.37 billion. But the National Economic Development Authority Region 10 said the cost could run up to P8.09 billion.
NEDA 10 regional director Mylah Faye Aurora Cariño said the opening of the bridge can generate a 16.22-percent increase in economic activity in the Lanao del Norte and Misamis Occidental as well as the rest of northern Mindanao.
Cariño said travel time between Tangub, Misamis Occidental and Tubod, Lanao del Norte will be reduced from the current 2.5 hours to seven minutes making the transit of commercial goods easier. She said the bridge will serve as a gateway connecting the two towns.
Dimaporo said real estate prices in all the towns around Tubod have gone up in anticipation of the increased economic activity after the bridge’s opening in August. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)
